


Captain's Jacket

by digitalsoop



Category: Free!
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-09
Updated: 2014-01-09
Packaged: 2018-01-08 03:31:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1127835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitalsoop/pseuds/digitalsoop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cross Posted on Tumblr</p>
<p>Makoto's son learns that he has pretty big sleeves to fill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Captain's Jacket

**Author's Note:**

> Based on sketches by Tumblr user thehorsewasasurprise (http://thehorsewasasurprise.tumblr.com/post/72064894744/).
> 
> Minoru is the makogou child that cantabrasil03 created. She wrote a really lovely nsfw sort-of-sequel to this over at her tumblr (http://canta-brasil03.tumblr.com/post/72383253908/)

After every Christmas Mama tied up her hair, rolled up her sleeves, and Minoru knew that until New Year’s Eve their days would be spent cleaning the house and taking boxes of things to other people that needed them; that dulled the sting of watching his old toys be carried out of the house by Papa, but it didn’t make the sorting and scrubbing and dusting very fun.

He carefully weighed two toy cars that he had shoved into his closet and forgotten about, knowing that busier he looked the longer he could avoid dusting shelves. But if Mama sneezed much more he’d be given a dust rag either way.

"Did you get the boxes down from the top shelf yet?"

"I thought you wanted to wait."

"Well, if I’m going to dust it may as well be from the top down."

"You’re not really going to climb up there, are you?"

Minoru cautiously opened his door just enough to peek at Mama wiping her forehead with the back of her hand and giggling as she followed Papa into their bedroom. “You don’t have to sound so worried, Honey.” 

"Well it’s a bit high—" he looked between her and the open closet, huffing as he reached up to the dusty boxes and started pulling them down. "I can do it."

Mama gingerly batted them with her dust rag and pulled one of the boxes open. “I figured you would go through these while I dusted. I think it’s mostly your things.”

"Minoru can help me." Papa clapped his hands together to get the dust off. "He’s probably done sorting through his things. He’s pretty good at that."

"Unlike his papa, apparently," Mama teased. "Minoru, can you help Papa please?"

"Yes, Mama!" Minoru leapt to his feet and threw both cars into his donation box. It took a lot of effort not to throw his door open and bound into his parents’ room; he might never have permission to go through their things again, and for someone that loved to know as much as he could, it was a golden opportunity.

Papa smiled when he appeared in their doorway, taking a dust rag from Mama. “You’ll help me sort through some things while I clean, right buddy?”

"I’m counting on you to make sure he actually tries to get rid of some things this year, okay?" Mama patted Minoru’s head as she left. Papa gave him a sheepish look as he shrugged and pulled two more boxes from the top of the closet.  _Mako’s Things_ was written in black marker on all three boxes, and he slowly traced the strokes with his finger.

"Is this Gram’s writing?"

"It might be. I’ve been using those boxes since I packed up for college."

"When do you go to college?"

"Oh you can go any time, if you can prove you can do the work." Papa stood on his toes to reach to the back of the shelf. "But most people go when they’re 18 or 19. That’s when I went."

He opened the first box with a hum. “So you’ve had these things for almost ten years?”

"Well—yeah, I guess that’s right. Good job, Minoru."

The box was mostly filled with books and comics that Minoru didn’t have much interest in and neither did Papa; as soon as it was confirmed there was nothing else in the box, he decided to donate the whole thing. Minoru held up shoes, hats, scarves, action figures and a backpack, until Papa finally decided they would need a bigger donation box and left his dusting duties to find one.

Taking advantage of the fact that he was unsupervised, he began going through the boxes with a bit more care. There were small albums and envelopes full of photos that had immediately piqued his interest, but those were set aside for later, because something else caught his eye.

Tucked underneath a pair of goggles and a black swimsuit was a bundle of blue and white fabric which unfurled immediately when he tugged it, revealing a jacket that was nearly as big as he was. For a moment he was awestruck, taking in the pristine fabric and the lingering scent of chlorine, and then he grinned and slipped one arm into an oversized sleeve, and then the other; his hands were engulfed by the sleeves, and the bottom of the jacket easily reached past his knees.

"Oh! I was wondering where that had disappeared to." Papa smiled and set down an empty box. "It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of those."

His eyebrows arched high above wide eyes, the large sleeves flapping as he bounced on the balls of his feet. “What is it?”

"That’s my old swim club jacket, from when I swam in high school." He tilted his head and crouched down by the box, pulling out a pair of matching pants with a laugh. "These were pretty comfortable, actually."

"So Uncle Haru has one too? And Uncle Rei, and Nagisa and Rin?"

"Uncle Rin went to a different school. Mama has one though, since she was the manager."

"What about you Papa? What were you?"

"Well, I was the captain."

Minoru looked at his sleeves with solemn reverence. “What did you do as captain, Papa?”

"I made sure everyone did what they were supposed to—"

"What were they supposed to do?"

"Be on time for practice, stay on task—"

"Did you tell them how to stretch? Or did Mama? I bet it was Mama, she’s always planning everything at home and telling you what to do."

"Y-yeah it was exactly like that, actually."

"Can I be the captain, too?"

Papa smiled and put a hand on his chin, brow furrowing in thought. Finally he put a hand on Minoru’s shoulder. “I think you have a good chance of filling out that jacket. As long as you keep working hard, there’s no reason you can’t be the captain.”

Minoru smiled, puffing out his chest. “I’ll be a good captain just like you, Papa! I’ll practice right now, and make sure you stay on task for cleaning.”

With a sigh Papa picked up his rag. “Well that’ll make Mama happy at least.”


End file.
